Nikon

Jonny Helm Review December 19, 2017October 4, 2023 0 Comments

Nikon D850 | Love at last?

Longtime Nikon user Holly Wren pitches the Nikon D850 against her trusted D800.

The announcement of a new camera gives rise to a wave of excitement in me, in a flurry of geeky activity I am researching for leaks and specs.

So when I heard about the D850, I reached a new level of excitement; my heart may have even skipped a beat. Could this be the one?

As a portrait and lifestyle photographer I’ve struggled for a few years with which Nikon I want to use. I started way back 6 years ago with the D800, then added a D4.

The D4 is an excellent camera; I bought it for the ISO capabilities and it didn’t disappoint. But for my use (and for my osteopath), it was too heavy and the resolution wasn’t quite what my clients demanded. It had astonishingly great shutter speeds, amazing focusing and is durable but sadly it spent most of it’s life on the sidelines, as I chose my D800 over and over again.

Although, getting into a fully committed relationship with my D800 proved impossible when I found a few issues with focusing – an area that the D4 beat it hands down. The arrival of the D810 was beacon of light and although there were some improvements, I just couldn’t see enough of a difference between that and my D800. So I held fast, waiting for a game changer.

The announcement of the D5 had me tempted, but as my much as I knew how insanely good this camera would be, it didn’t tick all my boxes. My one true wish therefore, was that the D5 and D810 would spawn a love child. And luckily for me, they did. It’s called the D850.

D850 + 50mm ƒ/1.4G 1/800 @ ƒ/4.0 ISO 2000 | © Holly Wren

I’ve had this camera since it’s launch, so have had the opportunity to use it a fair few times. I won’t give you a run down of tech specs – although if you want them, you can find them here. I want to tell you why I, a commercial portrait photographer, have started a love affair with the D850.

Firstly, high resolution. A 45.7 MP sensor is no laughing matter – certainly not for your bank manager when he sees the add on costs of shooting on a camera with these capabilities. Yesterday I spanked £239 on an XQD card, then I threw up. Unless you’re a rich amateur, this camera is not for the faint hearted.

But if you have the clients, and the deep pockets, this camera won’t disappoint. The image quality feels distinctly “medium format” and looking at my images, they took a little getting used to. Gone is the softness, this is all about detail, which arguably for portraiture, can sometimes be too much. Remember that bad skin you wanted to hide? No more. But if you can get through that, the camera delivers the ability to create outstanding portraits, with impeccable detail which can be printed large format. I personally love this look, and I’m never worried I can’t deliver large files.

But a word of warning, a large sensor means everything shows, and in order to keep camera shake or blur out of your images you’ll need to compensate with high shutter speeds – I’ve figured out that even 1/250 second may be a little risky….

D850 + 50mm ƒ/1.4G 1/125 @ ƒ/3.5 ISO 1250 | © Holly Wren

Autofocusing – this is the biggest correction point for me. My struggle with the D800 and subsequently the D810 is that, on certain lenses there have, at times, been autofocus issues. The D850, in my testing thus far, hasn’t failed me once. Probably thanks to the fact it’s been blessed with full AF capabilities of Nikon’s flagship sports camera the D5 (which is arguably one of the best AF systems out there).

Of course, I’d always recommend that you calibrate your prime lenses for optimal performance, but knowing you have the AF hardware capabilities of the D5 is a mega helping hand. In my experience, it still struggles a little in lower light, but what camera doesn’t?

ISO capabilities – the official line is that you can shoot from ISO 64 to 25,660 standard (ISO 32 – 102,400 extended). Now let’s be honest, that sounds impressive but mainly it’s completely irrelevant. What I care about is how far can I push it with zero recognition.

I like to balance light, the UK weather demands I use flash, but I love ambient and natural light, and a large part of that relies on my ability to push the ISO. Push it but most importantly, not see it. I don’t like noise, I don’t want grain. And the D850’s improved ISO abilities, this is no problem. I can get to around ISO 5,000 without seeing too much, on my D810 I don’t go beyond 3,200, so I have a few extra points to award here for that improvement.

And they are my 3 key reasons I love the D850, but there are a few more I’d like to sweep up that have impressed and pleased me about this camera, those tweaks that were necessary and timely, but do warm my heart on a cold day.

The new backscreen, larger and brighter its now a touchscreen back, which for added enjoyment and ease also tilts. Battery life is also greatly improved, beyond recognition in fact – it now feels more comparable to that of the D4.

D850 + 50mm ƒ/1.4G 1/160 @ ƒ/4.0 ISO 1600 | © Holly Wren

And finally, but most importantly, Nikon have ditched the pop up (should I call it compact?) flash – thank the lord. No more looking like an amateur, catching the flip up when using my TTL trigger and most astonishingly, bashing myself in the face. Thank you Nikon. You heroes.

There are rave reviews everywhere about the D850, so I am in no doubt that technically it outperforms it’s predecessors, so I’m happy to announce that, in my experience the reality does not disappoint.

In conclusion, do buy it if:

You want a “medium format” feel / shoot for large format printing
Want D5 performance Auto focusing
Need to push to high ISO’s
Want a noticeable upgrade to your D800 or D810
You’re sick of bashing your face on a pop up flash

Don’t buy it if

You expect the wifi file transferring to work perfectly (aka SnapBridge)
You don’t have money to burn on cards and hard drives
You shoot anything fast moving and are likely to work on low shutter speeds
You want to disguise detail not add it

All in all, this camera has me excited. At last, my problems are solved – I have a camera that I can fall truly, in love with. And I feel like the D850 and I have a real shot at living happily ever after…. (well at least until they D860 struts into my life!)

The Nikon D850 retails at £3,449 but you’ll have to put your name on the list, they’re still few and far between!

Jonny Helm Tips & Tricks December 13, 2017October 6, 2023 2 Comments

Tips & Tricks | Resetting your camera

Our workshop receives quite a few cameras for repair that don’t actually have anything wrong with them! More often than not, users have inadvertently set custom functions on their DSLRs that disable operations such as AF and shutter release from working correctly.

Of course, if your camera is behaving erratically, it may well have a genuine fault, but it’s definitely worth wiping any custom settings before you send it in to us.

If you’ve been following our Tips & Tricks series, you’ll have seen a post recently that described a simple way of backing up and restoring your camera settings on a spare memory card. This is, of course, a great way of getting your DSLR up & running after a full reset, but make sure you’re backing up and restoring a fully ‘working’ set of parameters!

Fortunately, resetting the camera settings back to a factory standard is a fairly straightforward process.

On many Nikon DSLRs, there is handy shortcut accessible from a couple of exterior buttons that are marked with a small green dot. Pressing these two buttons simultaneously for a second or so will reset many of the camera settings back to factory standards. The position of these buttons does vary from model to model though:

D5
The [DRIVE] & [WB] buttons below the smaller rear LCD.

D4, D4s
The [ISO] & [WB] buttons below the smaller rear LCD.

D850, D810, D800 & D500
The [+/-] & [QUAL] buttons on the top.

D750, D610, D600
The [+/-] button on the top of the camera and the [ISO] button the rear.

What we tend to find is that any custom functions will not be reset using the above procedure and you’ll need to go into menu to wipe these. Again, it varies from camera to camera!

On the high-end Nikons (D800 and above), you’ll need to reset the 4 Custom settings banks individually. Select the [A] bank and press the [DELETE] button. Repeat for [B,C & D] banks.

You’ll also need to reset the 4 shooting banks, following the same procedure as above.

The D750, D610 & D600 only have one custom settings bank so resetting is much easier, and again, only the one shooting bank.

Interestingly, the D5 & D4s seem to be the only cameras with a master reset option in the menu, but again, not all custom settings are cleared.

Canon

Canon users have it a bit easier when it comes to clearing errant settings. On the majority of professional grade bodies – certainly the 7D upwards – there are just two menu controls to access.

Activating these two options through the menu should return your Canon DSLR to its factory settings.

Sony

Sony users have it the easiest with the A7 & A9 cameras. A single menu option takes care of either wiping the camera settings, or performing a full factory reset and clearing absolutely every setting back to factory standard.

‘Camera Settings Reset’ will restore the standard shooting menu, whereas ‘Initialize’ will reset the entire camera back to factory standards. Unfortunately, Sony have not yet provided a facility for backing up and restoring settings, so be aware that you’ll have to sit down and go through every parameter, especially if you opted for the ‘Initialize’ option.

If anyone has any further suggestions for performing a camera reset, please feel free to share below.

Jonny Helm Review December 1, 2017October 11, 2023 7 Comments

CamRanger review | The best kept secret in Wireless triggering?

You’d be forgiven for thinking that CamRanger are not that bothered whether you buy their products or not – they have zero presence on Instagram, and haven’t tweeted since 2015, updated their blog since 2016, or been reviewed since 2013.

Perhaps you haven’t even heard of them. But then, how would you? Unless of course you’ve been looking to remote trigger your camera from a distance, because that seems to be the sell point on the CamRanger – it’s a wireless control trigger for photographers who want to control their Nikon or Canon from an iOS device. You can view and edit camera settings, record movies, set up timelapse, and capture images all from a remote device. Neat. But the thing they don’t sell you on is the CamRanger’s ability to work as a wireless tethering device. A simple function in many ways, tethering is an incredibly usable function for photographers, and one environmental photographers worldwide, would prefer to be wireless.

Wireless tethering seems to be hard to do well – reliability, connectivity and speed seem to be the hardest functions to excel in and there doesn’t seem to be the perfect solution.

Firstly, let me say what I fan I am of the theory of tethering, the idea is great. Images sent to a large screen where you, your assistant and your clients can woo and wow at your excellent skills OR pick apart every part of your image and make endless suggestions of ways to tweak the shot. But still. Great. Myself and my assistant can check focus, and clients can be assured you’re getting what they want, how they want.

My experience with EyeFi mobiPRO cards has been tenuous. Even wired tethering leaves me short, as Nikon users will know, you can’t view both on screen and camera back when tethering, and camera back is not something I’m willing to sacrifice. Plus, the impracticality of being attached to a computer whilst I’m moving around a location, manoeuvring myself into small corners and standing on furniture makes being connected almost impossible (you want to see more of that, follow me on instagram @holly_wren). And my biggest fear of wired tethering – the potential loss of files, given that if you lose the wire you risk losing all the images – as the files are not being written to the card in your camera whilst attached to the computer. And losing the wire is easy, even jerk stoppers and alike don’t really help.

When most people think tethering, they think Tether Tools. A competitor to CamRanger, who do actually have their shit together – fancy website, nice branding, good product range and a social media presence to the tune of 90,000 Instagram followers. So why pick the very undersold CamRanger? I haven’t used Tether Tools “Air Case” wireless, so I can’t compare these products directly, but I have been told by reliable sources (clears throat, ahem, Fixation team) that the CamRanger is a tried and tested recommendation with other photographers. And looking at their website they seem to have a surprisingly good range of reviews and fans, perhaps CamRanger are just the best kept secret in professional photography?

Picking up the CamRanger, you’ll likely be completely underwhelmed. You’ll wonder what your £200 is paying for – not product marketing (as we established) and certainly not packaging or branding; the sticker looks like a 12-year-old designed it on word and printed it on their home computer. But should you care? No. Because the CamRanger to date provides the best wireless tethering I’ve tried.

It’s a little white box with some simple slide switches and reassuring green lights, that flash similarly to those on a wifi box. It’s relatively compact and feels sleek (ignore the sticker).

The connection is good, not perfect but almost. The CamRanger works by creating an ad hoc wifi network that your iOS device connects too. Once you get it turned on and connected via wifi (I use my iPad Pro), it’s a simple as firing and waiting for the image to appear – which happens quickly, seemingly only a fraction slower than when physically tethered. You can shoot RAW files + jpeg in camera, and the CamRanger receives only the jpeg. And you can view on your iOS device, but also, thankfully, still on the back of the camera. So no walking to and from the ipad unless you choose. I give the ipad to my assistant, or client, so they can see what I see. Occasionally I just place it in front of me, as an extra check, or show my model to feedback and adjust poses and framing.

The app is free, and you can share to multiple devices by downloading a secondary app – CamRanger Share, which is especially handy if you have multiple parties wanting to see the shots simultaneously – no more huddling around the one computer screen, or fighting with the client to see your own image. It also means you can select the images to share (or not) and use my favourite function “compare” which allows you to show two images side by side, especially useful when doing demonstrations or giving options on shots. By switching into Client Mode in app, you take away the camera controls, and like magic, it then works purely as a tether view tool.

You’re going to want to leave the CamRanger and your camera switched on where you can – otherwise you risk breaking the wifi connection and having to re-establish via settings on your device. A habit I have to get used to, turning my camera off when I’m not shooting is second nature to me in an effort to conserve battery.

Buffering seems to be minimal if you shoot at a steady pace, for my lifestyle work where I sometimes go slightly pap on myself, there is some lag. But there’s lag when I shoot like that tethered by wire. So I’ll take that on the chin.

I also like that nothing is stored on your device, and the session you are shooting on is wiped after a few hours, if you don’t re connect by opening the app. Meaning you don’t take up precious storage space, or have to see libraries of previous shoots when working with different clients (because I never remembered to wipe the last session on my eyefi app when I finished).

The bummer is, that the CamRanger connects via a USB cable that leaves the problem of where to put it whilst shooting. Others have suggested a longer cable giving you the option to put the small (phone sized) device in your pocket. But for me, that gives too much opportunity for the wire to be disconnected (at least with no risk of losing your images!). So my solution is to tape it to the bottom of my camera, and use the TetherTools Jerk Stopper to add an extra level of protection to the wire. That way, the CamRanger stays held by me alongside my camera. Despite my best efforts to make it look sexy using pink tape, it does not. And it’s not entirely practical – the tape can make it more challenging to change batteries and memory cards. But it’s workable.

What’s that you say? TetherTools have the solution with their AirCase? Well, sort of. There Air Case actually fits in the hot shoe, or dangles from the camera on a string OR sits on an extension bar next to a flash units – but for those of us using Triggers to fire flash, that isn’t even an option. And also puts a bar across your line of view, or a unit dangling in the way of where you grip your camera. So I’m afraid the not-so-sexy solution of taping to camera is the best I’ve found thus far.

The unit runs off a battery, and if you feel the need, you can buy a spare for £30. But it charges fast, and in my experience of using it all day, hasn’t run out. But then I’m generally near-ish to some sort of power socket, and could get it charged quickly and easily. If you’re more paranoid and a little less frugal than me, and extra battery is probably worth the investment.

The CamRanger isn’t perfect, in my experience it can sometimes struggle with speed of connection in some locations, and I can’t tell you why – perhaps something to do with other Wi-Fi networks and connections? Plus, the inability to keep it near the camera without going guerilla style with camera tape doesn’t scream sophistication. But, as far as your choices go for now, it’s the best I’ve found! It’s easy to use, set up, the app is simple, the connection works and it’s portable. I can view back of camera and keep my clients happy. For me, it’s a no brainer. If you’re looking for a wireless tethering solution, this is it.

You can hire the CamRanger from Wex rental – and handily it’s provided with an iPad. Or you can spend your hard earned cash buying one. But don’t even think about getting one direct – they’re not shipping at the moment. As I said, it’s almost like they don’t want you to buy one!

You can download the full user manual here

Jonny Helm ProFiles September 28, 2017October 6, 2023 0 Comments

ProFiles | Holly Wren

Holly Wren is a successful commercial photographer, specialising in portraiture, lifestyle and corporate commissions. We chewed the fat with Holly over a coffee in our showroom and talked about her work and why she loves photographing people so much…

Thanks for taking a break from your busy schedule Holly, I know you’ve got a lot on at the moment. Can you tell us when and how you first got interested in photography?

I remember as a child my grandad used to like to take photographs, he showed them to my sisters and me using a projector on a white wall in their spare bedroom, talking us through how and why he took them. Something my dad then became interested in. At the age of 10 my dad bought me an Olympus OM10, of course shooting film then was just standard practice, I remember picking it up from a shop in Chester, I was so excited. I fell in and out of love with taking images from then until after university when I got my first digital SLR, I’d take pictures of flowers to put on my wall, friends thought they were bought postcards, they didn’t believe I’d taken them, which I guess was a compliment in disguise! But it wasn’t until 6 years later at 28 that I decided to take the plunge and went professional. I don’t remember why I loved it, perhaps because it was and is my way of connecting with people, firstly with my grandfather and my dad, and now everyone.

I believe you worked in property development before taking up photography professionally. How did that transition come about?

Sometimes, the best things come out of what can seem like terrible circumstances. I was incredibly unhappy in the job I was doing, I didn’t enjoy my work and consequently my life so I decided to re invent myself – let’s say it was a late twenties crisis! When I assessed what I liked doing, photography came out top of the list, so I decided, in a some what rash move, to quit my safe well paid job to work in a shop and set up freelance as a photographer. Until that point, I’d never taken a portrait. Looking back it seems quite insane, but I guess at rock bottom you don’t feel like there’s much to loose. I joined The Prince’s Trust and worked everyday for a year between the shop and setting up my business to catapult myself into a completely unknown industry.

And why portraits? Coming out of a property background wouldn’t architectural photography have been a more obvious choice?

Yes! It would have! However, when I finished working in property I think I’d had my fill of buildings for a while! Portraits or people, were the obvious choice for me, I come alive in company, I feel comfortable meeting strangers and connecting with them. I love people, meeting new people, I’m eternally fascinated by them. Everyone, without exception, has a story, and that’s what keeps me hooked. I really love to get to know my subjects and when you get something out of them, that perhaps they didn’t expect or that they haven’t given before, it’s amazing. Perhaps I’m just have an extreme case of people watching, the camera gives me that bridge to people and cultures that I would otherwise never have the opportunity to meet and learn from.

You shoot a lot of personal projects when you’re not shooting for clients. Do you think this helps your commercial work fresh by allowing you to try new techniques ?

Absolutely. Half my work is either project based or test shooting, any down time I have I use to plan and execute personal projects. Commercial work is great, and it pays the rent, but it doesn’t always allow you to express yourself or develop skills and ideas, after all, you’re being paid to produce, not experiment. I find my commercial clients and art buyers are equally, if not more, interested in the projects I’ve shot self funded. It shows initiative, motivation, commitment and enthusiasm for what you do. It keeps my work and ideas moving forward, and although it costs me money, it definitely helps my commercial commissions. I love photography, pretty much every part of my life involves it. I can’t remember the last trip I took that didn’t involve some sort of photographic element!

Any interesting projects that you’re working on at the moment?

Always! I’m busy curating a series I photographed last October during Dia De Los Muertos in Oaxaca, Mexico. It’s being exhibited in a Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles. I’ve had to wait a year to release the images to time it with the festival, which is frustrating but necessary to ensure maximum press coverage. I’m also in the process of planning and shooting a few mini portrait series, one with The Red Arrows, The Fire Brigade and a swim school. Then there’s that top secret Profoto product launch that we’ve been planning for the last few months…

Talking of Profoto, I understand you’re a big fan of the location flash systems – B1X and B2’s, yet a lot of your work looks naturally lit. Is this important to you – to keep the lighting uncontrived?

I think all photographers have a style, and so yes, I guess mine is, on the whole, images that look like they’ve been lit with natural light. Unfortunately, in the UK the weather isn’t always so kind, and working environmentally nothing is guaranteed so I like to use the Profoto flash systems to help achieve that. I like flat light, high key shots with a shallow depth of field, but my approach is to light on a ‘need to’ basis – I start with natural light and layer reflectors and flash as needed to achieve my “look”. So you’ll more often than not see me with a large octabox, I’m a soft light enthusiast!

Are you a big fan of retouching or do you prefer to try and get it right in camera?

Retouching has it’s place, and the way it’s used is dependent on your style, I love photography that uses composite and heavy retouches, but for my work, that doesn’t fit with my style. I want to make a great image in camera, that becomes an amazing image once finished in edit. For me, that’s more important than an average image in camera that’s transformed in post into something unrecognisable. I like to create images that are natural and seem effortless. Of course, I use retouching to clean up backgrounds, alter levels and saturation, and do some light skin retouching but it’s subtle. I often post my before and after edit images on my blog, to show how little I do – but how effective a small tweak here and there can be. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve heard a derivative of “but you can change/ add/ edit/ remove that in photoshop afterwards right?” And my answer tends to be “Maybe, but why would we if we can get it right now?” I guess that summarises my attitude. Do everything you can in camera to get as close to the finished vision as you can, then rely on some sneaky photoshopping to achieve the rest!

Do you have a wish-list of people to photograph?

Oh yes, of course. I have a real passion for stories and interesting faces, so my wish list would more include indigenous people and tribes rather than western celebrities . Although I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t like to photograph certain celebrities, although they tend to be more stars from childhood or people who have done incredible things – those who are top of their industry, the type of people you could talk to for hours.

What’s in your kit bag?

Nikon! And Profoto. Lucky for me, a new Nikon D850. Then a D810. My favourite lenses are primes, specifically the Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.4 and 50mm ƒ/1.4, followed closely by the new 70-200mm ƒ/2.8 (it shoots like a prime). I also have the Sigma 105mm ƒ/2.8 and of course the Nikkor 24-70mm ƒ/2.8. I own a set of Profoto B2’s and various soft boxes! My new fave gadget is the Cam Ranger which I use to shoot to my iPad Pro so clients can see the shots as they’re taken.

How much do you rely on Fixation for your work?

I imagine the answer to this is a lot on the basis that you know who I am from my voice when I call! I have a basic kit bag, but I often need to rent other lenses for specific briefs or more powerful lights or particular modifiers. I also need various repairs, sensor cleans and to buy new kit. Having a good relationship with a rental shop is vital, and I find that the staff in Fixation are super friendly and helpful. I’ve been coming to you since the beginning of my career, and you’ve always helped and advised me, and never felt like my often stupid or simplistic questions are a burden. I can name a few specific instances where you have gone above and beyond to help me solve problems and ensure I’ve never been left unprepared or without the kit I need.

Holly was talking to Tim Stavrinou

To see more of her work, visit her website www.hollywren.com and her Instagram feed here

Jonny Helm Feature September 7, 2017October 6, 2023 0 Comments

London Theatres | Peter Dazeley

“Did you know that Apple have over 800 people working on the iPhone’s camera alone?” says Peter Dazeley as I arrive at his Chelsea studio complex to discuss his latest work.

I admit that I didn’t as he continues, “And at the same time, Kodak have just launched a smartphone! They could have been the new Apple if they’d have pulled their finger out years ago!”

I’m meeting Dazeley to discuss the launch of his new book, London Theatres, and to see what he’s been up to since we last spoke.

After being awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list for services to photography and charity, you might expect him to cut down his workload and reflect on his remarkable career to date as a fine art and advertising photographer. But no – he’s as busy as ever, having spent the last few months putting the finishing touches on the book, alongside a busy shooting schedule for Getty.

I was lucky enough to flick through an advanced copy of the book, a beautifully presented piece written by leading theatre critic Michael Coveney with all photographs courtesy of Dazeley and an inspiring foreword by the Oscar winning Mark Rylance.

London Theatres neatly completes a natural trilogy alongside his previous works Unseen London (2014) and London Uncovered (2016). The book invites the reader on a tour of forty-six London theatres, with stories of the architecture, the staging and the productions that have defined each one.

How do you approach a project like this? Was the book your idea?

No, the first two books were my ideas that I took to a publisher. In fact the first book (Unseen London), I originally envisaged purely as a book of photographs but the publisher felt it needed a narrative, and actually the writer did a fantastic job and brought the book to life. It was very successful, but there was a bit of a reaction because many of the places featured were inaccessible to the public, so I hit on the idea of the second book (London Uncovered), which featured readily accessible places. We also made a point of featuring information about each place in the book – website addresses, opening hours, etc.

The idea for London Theatres actually came from the sales team at the publishers. There was a book on theatres years ago and they were keen to produce an updated version. I managed to get hold of a copy of this old book and I felt I could shoot these theatres and do them justice, so I signed up to do the book and the publishers approached Michael Coveney, a long-time theatre reviewer, who did a wonderful job on the text.

The nice thing about it for me was that for the first two books I’d already photographed maybe half a dozen theatres, and while shooting these, the staff had a lot of recommendations as to other theatres that would be great to feature, and it snowballed from there. A few places weren’t that keen initially, but once we’d explained the concept to them and shown them the work so far, they were quickly on board.

[gdlr_quote align=”center” ]

One of the most amazing things about the book was getting Sir Mark Rylance to write the foreword. I’d have been grateful for two paragraphs, but he’s written about 1500 beautiful words about the interaction between the artist and the space, the audience and the theatre. He’s obviously very passionate about theatre and I’m so pleased he set aside the time to write it; he must be one of the busiest actors we have these days.

[/gdlr_quote]

It’s nice to see a lot of behind the scenes shots too, rather than just the auditoriums.

Yes, it was a very conscious decision not to produce a book of photographs showing endless red seats. I’m a lover of the theatre, but I think most people will go and see a show without really taking into account what the actual place looks like. Every time I visited a location I tried to have an open mind, to see what I could find that was different or unusual. Sometimes it was tricky; most of the theatres were busy with rehearsals during the day but I was able to get in very early in the morning and get the shots I needed.

Part of trying to keep the individuality of the theatres meant photographing above the stage, below stage, backstage, dressing rooms, fly floors; anything I could find that was different.

How long did the project take to shoot?

I guess about 9 months in total, shooting on and off when I was able to get access to the locations. Sometimes I’d shoot 2 or 3 in quick succession and then nothing for a few weeks.

What equipment did you shoot with?

My camera of choice for this kind of work has been my trusty Nikon D810 which I absolutely love. Some of the locations were very poorly lit but I was able to shoot up to 30s exposures with no problems whatsoever. The way it deals with mixed lighting is also very impressive. When I think back to my days of shooting film, a project like this would have been a nightmare!

One thing that strikes me is your attention to detail, especially in the symmetry of some of the shots.

(Laughs), I try and shoot with spirit levels as often as possible, but in those situations that I can’t, I know that I can make small corrections in post-production. I still find it incredible the way you can pull apart a RAW file from the D810 and put it back together without losing anything.

There must have been some particularly memorable locations you visited?

(Flicking through the book), to be honest I enjoyed them all for different reasons. Take this one for example (Wilton’s Music Hall) – places like this shouldn’t exist any more but I’m extremely glad it does. It’s been restored, but very sympathetically and they’ve kept lots of the original brickwork. It’s still a working theatre and still giving people a lot of pleasure.

St. Martin’s Theatre too, probably one of my favourite theatres in London; such a beautiful building. My publisher was keen to show some exterior shots of some of the locations, something I wasn’t particularly keen on, but on this occasion, I was actually going to the theatre one evening with my daughter and had the foresight to take my camera and tripod along. I’m rather pleased I did! Here’s another interesting one, the New Wimbledon Theatre; they had to remove the globe from the top of it during WW2 because the Luftwaffe were aiming for it to find their way into London!

London Theatres is available now from all good bookshops and can be found online here

To see more of Dazeley’s work, visit his website www.peterdazeley.com

Dazeley was speaking to Tim Stavrinou.

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